Wednesday, April 17, 2013

TUSAL and a little more progress on Mary Hart

I know! I'm very late with this photo!
I promise, I really have been filling up this little jar!
Here is my April TUSAL:

 

Also, last time I was here, I spoke too soon. I thought I had finished the borders, only to find out that I left out an entire motif on each side!

Well after some frogging and re-stitching, I am pleased to announce that I have now finally finished the borders!


I also made a start on the weirdly colored cat.
Next time, I will be back with the finish, I hope.

Hope everyone is enjoying their spring wherever you are!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

A Slow Go with Mary Hart

I really thought I would be finished with Mary by now. It is certainly not the fault of the sampler, because it is a very easy, pleasant stitch.

For any number of reasons this has been a very turbulent and distracting time around here. There were several evenings that I just was too tired or distracted to stitch.
I took this photo two days ago.


Since then, I have finished the border on the right side, and last night, I made a start on the cat.
It seems like I am back in the groove, so hopefully it won't be too much longer for a finish.

On the home front, we did not have good luck with our eggs.I think we had a problem with our incubator. Out of twenty two eggs, only 2 hatched. One was very weak, and only lived one day. The other one was a French Black Copper Maran. He (or she, I hope), was very weak for the first week. We fed her by hand, a mixture of vitamin water and honey.

Suddenly one day she was alert and hopping about. We didn't want her to be alone, so we drove upstate to buy a few chicks to keep her company. They are all thriving now.

Here is a photo of the little one at two weeks old.

 
We really hope it's a female, because Black Copper Marans lay the most beautiful chocolate brown eggs!
 
We had a little setback with Walter too. He had finally been integrated with the hens (or so we thought), and spent 2 nights with them. We came out to find him huddled in one of the laying boxes. Apparently he had fallen off the perch, and was pecked mercilessly by the hens. When we found him he was walking with a bad limp. We had to separate him again. His leg is much better now. He is walking normally again, but now we have to start the integration process all over again.
Poor Walter!
 
We are still looking for Spring around here. I did have some crocuses come up, but still no sign of a blooming daffodil! That is very unusual for this area! Seems like it has been winter for 6 months!
 
That's all I have for now. I will be back in a few days, hopefully with a finish!